Wednesday Reading Including Hugo Novelette, Novel, Short Story nominees

by Doctor Science

Delayed again, this time because the AC needed fixing and my brain melted. Now we're back in relative cool so I can do my roundup.

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Non-Hugo reading: Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. One thing I learned: I can no longer read paperbacks, at least ones not by major publishers, because the fonts are consistently too small to be comfortable for my aging eyes. Aggravating, because sharing e-books with family is difficult.

The cover makes "Ninefox Gambit" look like a bog-standard interstellar MilSF, but it's anything but. The world-building is very dense and complex, and it's never really explained: you're just dropped in, and have to be prepared to go with it, piecing together a picture of the world without any As-you-know-Bob explanations. A lot of what goes on is more or less magic -- but it's Clarke's Law Magic: controlled by mathematics, studied with simulations. Or is it all supposed to be Quantum, But Not As We Know It?

The plot, too, is complex and multi-layered -- and of course it's the first part of a trilogy, "The Machineries of Empire". This is the third book after "Lovecraft Country" and "Too Like the Lightning" to have nailed a place on my longlist for next year's nominations.

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Hugo reading:

Novelette: Well, I read "What Price Humanity" to the end, and I'm very sorry. I should have quit when the one (1) black character is described and immediately named "Token".

"And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead" by Brooke Bolander: I guess I can see why some people like it, but no. Too many of these stories are basically about video games, and not terribly interesting ones, either.

"Obits" by Stephen King: Suitable as a gripping introduction to a longer story. OKish in current state.

"Folding Beijing" by Hao Jingfang: the only one of these stories that really deserves to beat No Award, as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not reading "Flashpoint: Titan" unless one of you tells me I really, *really* ought to.

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I finally started Seveneves, and guys, I just don't know if I'm going to be able to do this. On the third page:

the word "Agent" ... [t]he closest match for how the word would be used forever after was the sense in which it was used by fencers and martial artists. In a sword-fighting drill, where one participant is going to mount an attack and the other is to respond in some way, the attacker is known as the agent and the respondent is known as the patient. The agent acts. The patient is passive.

WTF? I double-checked with Mr Dr Science, a fencer (competitor, teacher, referee) and he's never heard this terminology, though he thinks it possible it might have been used in the 18th century or earlier.

These days, fencers almost invariably say "attacker" and "defender" -- and the defender is by no means passive. Mr Dr & I wonder if Stephenson is thinking of Japanese seme and uke -- except the uke is only truly "passive" in really bad yaoi fanfic.

Ugh. The third page. I don't know if I'm going to make it to the part with genetics, which is almost certain to enrage me to the point of book-flinging.

Speaking of things I won't read, in Lisa Goldstein's discussion of "Seven Kill Tiger" (Short Story nominee) I commented:

Because humans are native (only) to Africa, Africans have more genetic diversity than all the rest of the world put together. There are plenty of genes that only show up in people of sub-Saharan African descent -- but no genes that show up in *all* of them, and not in the rest of the world.

This story is the opposite of realistic. ugh. I don't have to read it, do I?

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I was having so much trouble getting into "Seveneves" that I picked up The Fifth Season, to see if the trouble was book-specific or a more general "don't want to do homework" feeling. It's definitely the former: I read "The Fifth Season" almost straight through, only stopping reluctantly for meals, sleep. (note: though I was reading the paperback, I had no trouble with the font.) It's *definitely* getting my first-place vote for Best Novel.

I agree with those who found it not really depressing, but more *angry* -- in a completely justifiable way. I guessed the Big Reveal at the end quite early on - starting with the "think about what you're not noticing" Interlude in the middle. And I anticipated why some sections are in second person, which I've only seen well-done in stories (fanfic) about characters with complex or conflicted identities: Ozma, Methos, Clark Kent/Superman/Kal-El, etc.

What I wasn't expecting was that "The Fifth Season" has [rot-13 spoilers] gur fnzr cerzvfr nf frirarirf, n jbeyq jvgubhg gur zbba. Jnf gurer n punyyratr tbvat nebhaq? Na negvpyr gung tbg n ohapu bs crbcyr guvaxvat nobhg gur vqrn? GSF vf fb zhpu orggre guna gur ovgf bs Frirarirf V pbhyq trg guebhtu gung V qba'g guvax V'yy rira obgure jvgu gur Fgrcurafba (fbeel qhqr) (abg fbeel).

As with "Ninefox Gambit", I don't find TFS to be so much "epic fantasy" (as it says on the cover, wtf) as "Clarke's Law-Level SF". The fact that the Science in this SF is geology of course fills me with great glee -- it's one big reason I don't find the book as grimly dystopic as I feared. Like one of the characters, I am distractible by SCIENCE.

We've had an interesting discussion about the differences between SF & fantasy on File770. I said:

I'm not at all sure that [TFS is] any less science-y than, say, the Imperial Radch series. Which would make it space opera, only with less space.

and microtherion replied:

Given the emphasis on geology, wouldn't that make it… rock opera?

ba-dump CHING!

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Short story:

The only nominee that's remotely Hugo-worthy is Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer, so that'll be getting my vote. It's cute, charming, and makes you feel basically good, so I particularly recommend it for days when you need that sort of thing (which is a lot of them, recently).

I read Chuck Tingle's "Space Raptor Butt Invasion", and wow. That's pretty hilariously bad, both as a story and as gay porn. Aren't there any dudes writing *good* gay porn out there? This is just silly.

But at least it *intends* to be funny, and Chuck themself is proving such a masterful performance artist that I'll put it on my ballot below No Award. None of the other stories deserve even that much respect.

Comments

[joel hanes]

> Seveneves

IMHO some of Stephenson's weakest work.

I quit shortly after the major timejump in the narrative. No characters in the part I read whom I cared enough about to warrant continued reading.

Calibration: I read all of the Baroque Cycle, and enjoyed it.

[Ugh]

Maybe I should take Seveneves off my shopping list?

Just finished The City and The City today and, eh. Interesting concept but could have used a better ending, perhaps more exposition.

[joel hanes]

I can no longer read paperbacks,

Well you know
That you're over the hill
When your mind makes a promise
That your body can't fill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc5N5KRAZ-s

[Slartibartfast]

On the third page:

I was able to find this, and a few like it:

:"A" is agent (the person who acts) and "P" is patient (the person who responds).

Also, there is this, which firmly predates Seveneves.

Which I feel I must point out is palindromic. Probably everyone else had already noticed that.

[Yama]

Hmm, I never caught that Slart, so boo for my skillz.

Everything I know about fencing comes from The Complete Enchanter or Star Trek. Then again that covers most things besides fencing. I am a highly rounded individual.

[Slartibartfast]

I'd read it through once without noticing, so mine are no better. Actually, my brother pointed it out to me, so I can't even take credit for having figured it out on my own.

[Mooseking]

I read a couple of books from the used book store this week. Witch World by Andre Norton and D’Shai by Joel Rosenberg.

Witch World was interesting; it's so very fast paced by modern fantasy standards. It feels like an "only the action chapters" excerpt of a modern novel, at a 50% savings.

D'Shai did a great job of creating a non-European setting that didn't feel like a shallow faux-China or Japan. It was almost entirely about relationships and desires; more like a detective novel in the amount of violence and non-acrobatic action on the page.

[wj]

You might enjoy Rosenberg's Hour of the Octopus as well. I didn't like it quite as well as D'Shai, but that was partly because it wasn't as novel, being the same universe. But still well done.

[joel hanes]

Wow.

I read Witch World back in about 1965, when it was only a couple years old. Wyverns, right ? Vaguely amphibious hilfs with a technology indistinguishable from magic ? Loved it then; somehow can't recapture that when re-reading as an adult.

I think that Norton's Time Traders series has aged better than much of her other work. _Galactic_Derelict_ is perhaps my favorite work of hers. _The_Time_Traders_ and _Key_Out_Of_Time_ inspired in me a lifelong fascination with prehistory, particularly the Bronze-age beaker culture of northern Europe.

[liberal japonicus]

A bit of background/warning for those reading and wanting to apply any newfound Japanese vocabulary. Seme (as the good doc suggests) is from yayoi (male-male) comics and roughly means 'top' with uke meaning 'bottom'. However, I think they originated in manga cuture rather than being brought in from homosexual slang.

The term in martial arts is tori (taker) and uke (receiver). other terms include nage (thrower, often used in Judo) or shite ('doing hand'), with some variants scattered around.

[Matt McIrvin]

Isn't naming the black character "Token" a joke lifted directly from South Park?

[Slartibartfast]

"shite"

It's shite being Scottish!

Speaking of odd character names and Neil Stephenson:

Hiro Protagonist

[Robert P.]

Dr. Science, I agree with you about Fifth Season and Seveneves. Fifth Season is definitely going to be my first choice (unless something really amazing happens in "The Cinder Spires", which I have just begun), and Seveneves will rank low but above "No Award". It starts out with a bang (literally), but I could not find myself caring much about the characters.

What did you think about the other nominees? I very much enjoyed "Uprooted", but compared to "Fifth Season" it is very limited in scope. It's a very well constructed fantasy, built upon an unconventional mythic foundation (east european mythology rather than nordic, greek, or celtic), and it does everything right - strong plot, appealing and believable characters, well-constructed narrative. But compared to "Fifth Season" - I enjoyed "Uprooted", but "Fifth Season" really tore at me. I will rate "Uprooted" second.

As for "Ancillary Mercy": the first book in the trilogy, "Ancillary Justice" was truly magnificent, and fully deserved all of the awards that it received. But I don't think either of the sequels, "Ancillary Sword" or "Ancillary Mercy" are worthy of additional awards. It's not that there is anything "bad" about these books, it's just that they do do not, by themselves, break new ground. I will rate "Ancillary Mercy" third.

[BigHank53]

Does Seveneves even have any characters in it? I read the online promotional chapter last year and couldn't even imagine spending the time to read the rest, never mind the money.

Ninefox Gambit was a bit of slog in the first chapters--it really feels overstuffed, and folks that have read Yoon Ha Lee's collection Conservation of Shadows will have an advantage. It's well worth persevering; the book does not disappoint.

[Nombrilisme Vide]

But I don't think either of the sequels, "Ancillary Sword" or "Ancillary Mercy" are worthy of additional awards. It's not that there is anything "bad" about these books, it's just that they do do not, by themselves, break new ground. I will rate "Ancillary Mercy" third.

This just let me articulate why I couldn't stand Ancillary Sword independent of my affable indifference to its predecessor. AS read far more like an author's debut novel than AJ did.

[Robert P.]

I tend to weight "world building" very heavily when I rate SF stories and novels, and that's why I ranked "Ancillary Justice" so high. Ann Leckie created a thoroughly believable , albeit horrible, universe in that book. She knew what she was doing when she named the dominant regime the "Imperial Radch", an obvious reference to both the Roman Empire and Nazi Germany. In "Ancillary Justice" we see this horrible dystopia laid out for us. "Ancillary Sword" essentially marks time in this same tableau. "Ancillary Mercy" provides some release, in that we see the creation of a new republic that is independent from the Radch and the Presgar (who appear to be even worse than the Radch, but that might just be Radch propaganda).

[Dave W.]

I hit the same point as joel hanes, the end of part 2, about 500 Nook pages in (might be less in physical pages), and the last part of part 2 stretched my suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. The earlier part of the story drew me in enough to get to this point, but then the various gambit pileups, implausible interpersonal interactions, smart characters carrying the Idiot Ball for too long, characters totally losing sight of the main purpose of the mission, important stuff that's been suggested earlier suddenly handwaved away - in this section, Stephenson reminds me of a bad DM railroading his players into the exact scenario he needs to set up the background for the next part. (Spoilers): Naq gura, nsgre cntrf naq cntrf rzcunfvmvat gur rkgerzr yrgunyvgl bs fcnpr, jurer nalbar pna qvr nyzbfg nalgvzr sbe rffragvnyyl enaqbz ernfbaf, jr trg qbja gb gur rknpg frg bs fheivivat punenpgref ur arrqf gb frg hc gur arkg cneg, naq fhqqrayl jr uvg Naq Gurl Nyy Yvirq Unccvyl Rire Nsgre. Rira gubhtu gurl unir ernpurq n cbvag bs eryngvir fnsrgl, gurl ner rffragvnyyl va gur cbfvgvba bs Znex Jngarl ng gur ortvaavat bs Gur Znegvna, bayl ba n cynargbvq jvgu znal srjre erfbheprf guna Znef, naq ab ANFN gb pbzr gb gur erfphr. V qba'g frr nal tbbq jnl gb ernq guvf bgure guna "V'z oberq jvgu guvf cneg bs gur fgbel, naq jnag gb fxvc nurnq n srj trarengvbaf gb gur fgbel V ernyyl jnagrq gb jevgr."

[bc]

I wanted to like Ninefox Gambit more than I did. It wasn't the world-building or being dropped inside something you have to figure out. I like that. I like it when it isn't spelled out. But the "tapestry," while having some unique and interesting ideas, was simply too thin. Dangit. Frank Herbert ruined everything for me.